I recently read an article on Opsera titled What Is Code Smell? that explores the concept of code smells and how they relate to technical debt. The article explains that code smells are indicators of deeper issues in software design, like redundant code, overly complex functions, or lack of proper documentation. While these smells don’t necessarily cause bugs, they can make the code harder to maintain or extend in the future. Technical debt, on the other hand, refers to the trade-off between short-term efficiency and long-term code quality. It’s like borrowing from the future to meet deadlines now, but it eventually has to be repaid with interest—usually in the form of extra work to fix the issues caused by the shortcuts taken.
I chose this resource because it gives a practical explanation of two topics that I’ve encountered in my software engineering classes: design smells and technical debt. These are concepts that seemed theoretical at first, but this article helped me understand how they show up in real-world projects. As I start working on my own coding assignments, I can see how these issues might impact my projects if I don’t pay attention to them early on.
The article made me realize just how crucial it is to identify and address code smells early in the development process. For example, the article points out that long methods and duplicated code can be a sign of poor design that will slow down future changes. At first, I thought that refactoring or improving code design was something only necessary when a project was nearing completion. But now I understand that addressing these problems early can save a lot of time and effort in the long run.
What really stood out to me was the connection between technical debt and long-term project maintenance. As a student, it’s easy to think that as long as the code works, it’s good enough. But this article emphasized that taking shortcuts to meet deadlines may create technical debt that leads to problems later, such as bugs or a codebase that’s difficult to work with. I’ve already seen this in my own projects—trying to push through a solution quickly, only to realize later that the code is harder to manage than I expected.
In the future, I plan to pay more attention to clean code practices. I’ll aim to refactor code regularly and avoid taking shortcuts that might seem like a quick fix but could lead to bigger problems. This approach will not only improve my coding skills but also make my future projects more maintainable.
Resource:
What Is Code Smell? – Opsera Blog
From the blog Computer Science From a Basketball Fan by Brandon Njuguna and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
